Can you imagine after living in an abandon day-care center eking out a living, you are now at the top of your profession?

That’s exactly what happened to MercyMe after the mainstream success of “I Can Only Imagine,” a song written 10 years ago. To celebrate the anniversary and to help out a cause, the band launched the Rock & Worship Roadshow, which played at the Denver Coliseum on Thursday, April 9 (tickets $10), and released a new CD “10,” a greatest hits with DVD extras.

But it was by a fluke that the band’s founding members first came together. Lead singer Bart Millard was working the video and sound systems while Jim Bryson was playing keyboards for a friend who was leading the worship services. As Bryson explained the young woman started getting busy with other projects and asked a friend to fill in for her.

“This girl didn’t think she needed to practice,” Bryson explained, “and she locks up on stage. So we jokingly say, ‘Does anyone want to give it a shot?’ And Bart comes running from the side of the stage and grabs the mike. We knew he could sing because he would mess around in soundcheck. Then we did this camp in Switzerland. And afterward we both thought how can we do this full-time?”

Millard along with a friend, guitarist Mike Scheuchzer, moved to Oklahoma City, where Bryson was based. The trio found an old abandoned day-care center and set up a studio on one side and a “living area” on the other.

“It was a mess,” Bryson said. “And wow have things changed. Our ministry has gotten bigger. The success of ‘I Can Only Imagine’ has opened up so many doors for us and other Christian bands.”

With the success has come fame, fortune and adoration from fans, but the band stays grounded by donating time and money to various causes – this tour is helping juvenile diabetes via the “Imagine a Cure” foundation.

“We’ve been together 15 years and we are like brothers, and we keep each other in check,” Bryson said. “We all have the same vision, and we surround ourselves with great crew, management and agents. Plus we all have wives now, and they put us in our places real quick,” he said with a laugh.

The band also works with Compassion International, which is based in Colorado Springs. Compassion matches children in poverish countries with donors, who pledge to adopt the children and a relationship ensues via letters, photos and drawings. Two months ago the band went to the Dominican Republic with Compassion and as Bryson said, “It was something straight out of the movies.

“Slum areas, people living out of cardboard boxes,” Bryson added. “We met this one family that lives in a 8 by 10 foot house and they have two daughters. They have basic electricity, no bath, a small fridge like you see in dorm rooms, stove with one burner and two little beds on the floor. They have to go to a friend’s house to use the bathroom. Things like that keep you grounded.”

After winning the Dove Award in 2002 for song of the year, it wasn’t until about three years later that the “I Can Only Imagine” hit mainstream radio and took the band on rollercoaster ride.

“We were stunned when we won the Dove Award for the song,” Bryson said. “We knew it was special. Then three years later this radio station in Dallas played the song and their phones lines were jammed from people wanting to know who did the song. And it just took off from there.”

Taking off from there included appearances with Jay Leno, ABC News, CNN, Entertainment Weekly – the list goes on. And for Bryson, who used to race sports cars, a special appearance at a NASCAR event to sing the national anthem.

“I’m a huge racing fan,” Bryson said. “I’m a fanatic. We have a barn in the back and I have one room just for my memorabilia. I have helmets, a wing from an IndyCar, hoods, drivers’ uniforms . It’s definitely a man cave.”

The band, a seven-time Dove Award winner, is currently nominated for Song of the Year, “He Reigns” by the Gospel Music Association, which will hand out this year’s Doves on April 23 in Nashville, Tenn. The band also has two Grammy nominations, including this past year for Gospel Song of the Year.

“We’re 0-for-2 at the Grammys,” Bryson said chuckling. “It was great. To be around people in the industry that we aren’t normally around is great. It gets us out of our comfort zone and to be around so many inspirational people. It’s also a great place to show who we are and what we do.”

And the show, which included live performances from U2 and Paul McCartney?

“If I could play with a mainstream band it would be U2, no doubt,” Bryson said. “Then Paul McCartney. We saw a ton of stuff that night at the Grammys. It was great, but some acts I just don’t get. Rap and hip-hop, I just don’t get it. I’m not putting it down. It’s just a different lifestyle and culture.”

It’s kind of funny because it’s the band’s lifestyle and culture that is bringing MercyMe its success both in the Christian music world and the so-called mainstream society.

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